Mother relieved to have her baby girl back after father forcibly took her

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KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Friday night, one-year-old Shamya Reed bounced around her family’s apartment near 61st and Farrow in Kansas City, Kan. barefoot, smiling and eating a red popsicle and for her elated mom, it was a heart-tugging moment.

“She’s fine. I just feel so much better now that’s back here,” a happy Mauricha Reed said.

Hours earlier, it was chaos and confusion as a statewide Amber Alert went out and police began searching for the child reported missing by her mom.

“It was scary. I have a baby with this man. He’s never done anything like this,” Reed told FOX4's Robert Townsend.

Mauricha Reed told police around 3 p.m. her ex-boyfriend -- her baby’s father -- 18-year-old Ricardo Wheeler showed up at her KCK apartment angry and demanding that she give him their little girl.

“He had been calling and texting me all day and making threats. When he showed up here, he kept mainly making threats not towards the baby, but towards me,” Reed stated.

Reed told police when she refused to hand over her child, Ricardo Wheeler stormed inside her apartment, grabbed her child from the kitchen area, ran outside and hopped in a car with a female accomplice.

What’s more, Reed said before the pair sped away the woman also threatened her with a gun.

“She was outside the window with the gun in her pocket. She kept saying 'I’m going to shoot up this place if you don’t bring the baby outside,'” Mauricha Reed recalled.

Police searched and searched for the pair and the missing child. They said Ricardo Wheeler did not have custodial rights to the child.

“We don’t think she was in any danger, but we do know that he didn’t have any custody rights and should not have had the child,” said Officer Tom Tomasic, a spokesman with the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department.

About two hours after the terrifying ordeal started, Andrea Randle -- Shamya’s maternal grandmother -- said the woman who was with Ricardo Wheeler called her and told her to meet her at an apartment complex in Kansas City, Missouri.

“Yeah, she reached out to me and she said 'Ricardo just wanted to see his child.' He was not with her when I met the woman. She just gave me my grandbaby. Shamya was crying. I think she could sense something was wrong. I took her to a store to get some juice and crackers to help calm her down,” said Andrea Randle.

The family’s frightening saga over. The one-year-old is safe and back in her mom’s arms.

“I’m just glad she’s okay. I feel better to have her back now,” Mauricha Reed said as she hugged her baby girl.

By late Friday night, police still searching for Ricardo Wheeler.

“We want to question them for sure about the incident. At this point, we’re not sure what charges they will face, “ Officer Tom Tomasic said.